In most historical eras there have been many more males in this field of study than women.
Reason:
In most historical eras in most cultures, males have dominated women and cast them in the role of housekeepers and child-bearers.
This has only begun to change significantly in modern times.
Woman Philosophers in Ancient Times
Theano, mathematical thinker, wife of Pythagoras. Wrote a treatise describing the 'Golden Mean."
Diotima: a seer or priestess, a major character in Plato’s Symposium. Socrates says that in his youth he was taught "the philosophy of love" by Diotima.
Hipparchia, Cynic philosopher, married the famous Cynic Crates and lived in voluntary simplicity with him
Hypatia, head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, taught mathematics, philosophy and astronomy. Killed by a mob of Christian monks, 4th c. a.d.
Early Christian & Medieval Eras
Junia, in the New Testament called an Apostle by St. Paul
Hildegarde of Bingham, Benedictine abbess, musical composer, author of books on medicine, nature and spiritual revelation
Juliana of Norwich, mystic and theologian
Christine de Pisan, poet & philosopher, the west’s first professional woman writer. Challenged stereotypes in male-dominated culture. Completed 41 works during her 30 year career.
From Psychology website of Sweet Briar [[#|College]]: Carol Gilligan was the first to consider gender differences in her research with the mental processes of males and females in their moral development. In general, Gilligan noted differences between girls and boys in their feelings towards caring, relationships, and [[#|connections]] with other people. More specifically Gilligan noted that girls are more concerned with care, relationships, and [[#|connections]] with other people than boys (Lefton, 2000). Thus, Gilligan hypothesized that as younger children girls are more inclined towards caring, and boys are more inclined towards [[#|justice]] (Lefton, 2000). Gilligan suggests this difference is due to gender and the child’s relationship with the mother (Lefton, 2000).
Gilligan found that girls do in-fact develop moral orientations differently than boys. According to Gilligan, the central moral problem for women is the conflict between self and other. Within Gilligan’s theoretical framework for moral development in females, she provides a sequence of three levels (Belknap, 2000).
There are stereotypes of what is a girl, or a "good girl," or what is a "real boy."
The old view, in the name of gender, splits mind from body, thoughts from emotion, self from relationships, and allocates mind, self and thought to men, body, emotion and relationship to women – it makes no sense.
There is within us a healthy resistance to patriarchy. In other words, there is within us the grounds for a truly democratic society. Psychology has largely bought into the gender stereotypes of patriarc.
So feminism – my definition – is one of the great liberation movements in human history – the “movement to liberate democracy from patriarchy” because it’s a movement that unites women and men, recognizing the destructive effect of patriarchy on women and men.
The patriarchy has a much greater interest in the induction of the boy, and it only needs some women. You have a choice – you can buy in...or you can fall off the edge of the world and they don’t care what you do.
This is something we can all do, whether we do it within ourselves, within our own homes, with our family, with our children, our grand-children, which is to listen for a certain voice, in girls, in boys and in ourselves. It is an empowered voice, and it is a voice for peace.
Join the healthy resistance of children. I hope you’ll take some of this encouragement to join that resistance, which means doing that work in yourself.
From Wikipedia: She spent seventeen years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher and school [[#|administrator]], before earning her PhD and beginning work as an [[#|academic]] in the fields of [[#|philosophy]] of [[#|education]], theory of [[#|education]] and ethics, specifically moral [[#|education]] and ethics of care. She is past president of the [[#|Philosophy]] of Education Society and the John Dewey Society.
Noddings' first sole-authored book Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984) soon after the 1982 publication of Carol Gilligan’s ground-breaking work in the ethics of care In a Different Voice. While her work on ethics continued, with the publication of Women and Evil (1989), and later works on moral education, most of her later publications have been on the [[#|philosophy]] of education and educational theory. Her most significant works in these areas have been Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief (1993) and Philosophy of Education (1995). She has urgently pointed out that frequent testing of the sort so prevalent in today's schools can permanently destroy a child's desire to learn.
Nel Noddings draws an important distinction between natural caring and ethical caring. Noddings distinguishes between acting because "I want" and acting because "I must". When I care for someone because "I want" to care, say I hug a friend who needs hugging in an act of love, Noddings claims that I am engaged in natural caring. When I care for someone because "I must" care, say I hug an acquaintance who needs hugging in spite of my desire to escape that person's pain, according to Noddings, I am engaged in ethical caring. Ethical caring occurs when a person acts caringly out of a belief that caring is the appropriate way of relating to people. When someone acts in a caring way because that person naturally cares for another, the caring is not ethical caring. Noddings' claims that ethical caring is based on, and thus dependent on, natural caring. It is through experiencing others caring for them and naturally caring for others that people build what is called an "ethical ideal", an image of the kind of person they want to be.
Brief excerpts
In Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, Thomas Gradgrind—a fictional teacher—forbids even his beloved daughter Louisa from “wondering” or indulging in fantasy. No fairy tales or fantasies for Louisa! She grows up without imagination and entirely out of touch with her own feelings. Gradgrind loved his daughter; in the virtue sense, he cared. But he could not, until it was really too late, establish a caring relation.
In a harrowing real-life case, consider the family of the great philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Unable to make their inflexible, dictatorial father understand their hopes and longings, three of Wittgenstein’s brothers committed suicide. Wittgenstein himself admitted that although he needed love, he was unable to give it. The father cannot be held solely responsible for these multiple tragedies, but neither can he be totally absolved, nor can the society that supported conditions of lonely individualism and hierarchical obedience.
The relational view is needed. This is hard for some American thinkers to accept because the Western tradition puts such great emphasis on individualism.
When I care, my motive energy begins to flow toward the needs and wants of the cared-for. This does not mean that I will always approve of what the other wants, nor does it mean that I will never try to lead him or her to a better set of values, but I must take into account the feelings and desires that are actually there and respond as positively as my values and capacities allow.
Another reason that the relational view is difficult for some educators to accept is that people in almost all cultures have been taught to believe that “teacher knows best.” But the world is now so enormously complex that we cannot reasonably describe one model of an educated person. What we treasure as educated persons may be very different from the knowledge loved or needed by other educated persons.
The present insistence on more and more testing—even for young children—is largely a product of separation and lack of trust. If no adult has time to spend with a child—shared time that yields dependable and supportive evaluation—then society looks for an easy and efficient way to evaluate: test, test, and test year after year. Then fear and competition take the place of eager anticipation and shared delight in learning.
The caring teacher strives first to establish and maintain caring relations, and these relations exhibit an integrity that provides a foundation for everything teacher and student do together.
Woman Philosophers
In most historical eras there have been many more males in this field of study than women.
Reason:
In most historical eras in most cultures, males have dominated women and cast them in the role of housekeepers and child-bearers.
This has only begun to change significantly in modern times.
Woman Philosophers in Ancient Times
Theano, mathematical thinker, wife of Pythagoras. Wrote a treatise describing the 'Golden Mean."
Diotima: a seer or priestess, a major character in Plato’s Symposium. Socrates says that in his youth he was taught "the philosophy of love" by Diotima.
Hipparchia, Cynic philosopher, married the famous Cynic Crates and lived in voluntary simplicity with him
Hypatia, head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, taught mathematics, philosophy and astronomy. Killed by a mob of Christian monks, 4th c. a.d.
Early Christian & Medieval Eras
Junia, in the New Testament called an Apostle by St. Paul
Hildegarde of Bingham, Benedictine abbess, musical composer, author of books on medicine, nature and spiritual revelation
Juliana of Norwich, mystic and theologian
Christine de Pisan, poet & philosopher, the west’s first professional woman writer. Challenged stereotypes in male-dominated culture. Completed 41 works during her 30 year career.
18th and 19th Centuries
Mary Wollstonecraft, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights; best known for //A Vindication of the Rights of Woman//
"I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour."Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marywollst400949.html#h5VZPhBzYzQwtUHc.99
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her daughter, whose Frankenstein is an important work of philosophy regarding science & the nature of humanity
20th-21st Centuries
Hannah Arendt wrote The Banality of Evil. Her work deals with the nature of power, and the subjects of politics, authority, and totalitarianism.
Simone Weil, resistance fighter, Christian mystic, also interested in the Greek and Egyptian mysteries, Hinduism (especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita), and Mahayana Buddhism.
Simone de Beauvoir, life-mate of Sartre, wrote The Second Sex, powerful feminist work
Suzanne Langer, pioneer of symbolism and language analysis, author of Philosophy in a New Key
bell hooks, black feminist philosopher, author of over 30 books. “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.'"
The Ethics of Caring
Nel Noddings, philosopher of the ethics of caring and compassion, especially in education
Carol Gilligan, philosopher & psychologist, writes on ethical community issues and ethical relationships from the perspective of caring and nurturing
Voltaire: "All the reasoning of men is not worth one sentiment of woman."
Video from flickspire on "The One Flaw in Women": http://www.flickspire.com/m/LittleeInc/OneFlawIn
Caring: A Philosophy
developed by women who are professionals in education and psychology
"If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback
http://vimeo.com/6216273
Carol Gilligan
From Wikipedia:
Gilligan received her B.A. summa cum laude in English literature from Swarthmore College, a master's degree in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College, and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.
She began her teaching career at Harvard University in 1967, receiving tenure with the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1988. Gilligan taught for two years at the University of Cambridge (from 1992–1994) as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions. In 1997, she was appointed to the Patricia Albjerg Graham Chair in Gender [[#|Studies]]
Gilligan left Harvard in 2002 to join New York University as a full professor with the School of [[#|Education]] and the [[#|School]] of Law. She is currently a visiting professor with the [[#|University of Cambridge]] (Centre for Gender [[#|Studies]])
From Psychology website of Sweet Briar [[#|College]]:
Carol Gilligan was the first to consider gender differences in her research with the mental processes of males and females in their moral development. In general, Gilligan noted differences between girls and boys in their feelings towards caring, relationships, and [[#|connections]] with other people. More specifically Gilligan noted that girls are more concerned with care, relationships, and [[#|connections]] with other people than boys (Lefton, 2000). Thus, Gilligan hypothesized that as younger children girls are more inclined towards caring, and boys are more inclined towards [[#|justice]] (Lefton, 2000). Gilligan suggests this difference is due to gender and the child’s relationship with the mother (Lefton, 2000).
Gilligan found that girls do in-fact develop moral orientations differently than boys. According to Gilligan, the central moral problem for women is the conflict between self and other. Within Gilligan’s theoretical framework for moral development in females, she provides a sequence of three levels (Belknap, 2000).
From an interview at http://www.feminist.com/resources/carol_gilligan.html
There are stereotypes of what is a girl, or a "good girl," or what is a "real boy."
The old view, in the name of gender, splits mind from body, thoughts from emotion, self from relationships, and allocates mind, self and thought to men, body, emotion and relationship to women – it makes no sense.
There is within us a healthy resistance to patriarchy. In other words, there is within us the grounds for a truly democratic society. Psychology has largely bought into the gender stereotypes of patriarc.
So feminism – my definition – is one of the great liberation movements in human history – the “movement to liberate democracy from patriarchy” because it’s a movement that unites women and men, recognizing the destructive effect of patriarchy on women and men.
The patriarchy has a much greater interest in the induction of the boy, and it only needs some women. You have a choice – you can buy in...or you can fall off the edge of the world and they don’t care what you do.
This is something we can all do, whether we do it within ourselves, within our own homes, with our family, with our children, our grand-children, which is to listen for a certain voice, in girls, in boys and in ourselves. It is an empowered voice, and it is a voice for peace.
Join the healthy resistance of children. I hope you’ll take some of this encouragement to join that resistance, which means doing that work in yourself.
Nell Noddings
Video – 2.5 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVDDot3W7k
interview on care ethics, mentions Gilligan
From Wikipedia:
She spent seventeen years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher and school [[#|administrator]], before earning her PhD and beginning work as an [[#|academic]] in the fields of [[#|philosophy]] of [[#|education]], theory of [[#|education]] and ethics, specifically moral [[#|education]] and ethics of care. She is past president of the [[#|Philosophy]] of Education Society and the John Dewey Society.
Noddings' first sole-authored book Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984) soon after the 1982 publication of Carol Gilligan’s ground-breaking work in the ethics of care In a Different Voice. While her work on ethics continued, with the publication of Women and Evil (1989), and later works on moral education, most of her later publications have been on the [[#|philosophy]] of education and educational theory. Her most significant works in these areas have been Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief (1993) and Philosophy of Education (1995). She has urgently pointed out that frequent testing of the sort so prevalent in today's schools can permanently destroy a child's desire to learn.
Nel Noddings draws an important distinction between natural caring and ethical caring. Noddings distinguishes between acting because "I want" and acting because "I must". When I care for someone because "I want" to care, say I hug a friend who needs hugging in an act of love, Noddings claims that I am engaged in natural caring. When I care for someone because "I must" care, say I hug an acquaintance who needs hugging in spite of my desire to escape that person's pain, according to Noddings, I am engaged in ethical caring. Ethical caring occurs when a person acts caringly out of a belief that caring is the appropriate way of relating to people. When someone acts in a caring way because that person naturally cares for another, the caring is not ethical caring. Noddings' claims that ethical caring is based on, and thus dependent on, natural caring. It is through experiencing others caring for them and naturally caring for others that people build what is called an "ethical ideal", an image of the kind of person they want to be.
Nel Noddings, Caring in Education
http://infed.org/mobi/caring-in-education/
Brief excerptsIn Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, Thomas Gradgrind—a fictional teacher—forbids even his beloved daughter Louisa from “wondering” or indulging in fantasy. No fairy tales or fantasies for Louisa! She grows up without imagination and entirely out of touch with her own feelings. Gradgrind loved his daughter; in the virtue sense, he cared. But he could not, until it was really too late, establish a caring relation.
In a harrowing real-life case, consider the family of the great philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Unable to make their inflexible, dictatorial father understand their hopes and longings, three of Wittgenstein’s brothers committed suicide. Wittgenstein himself admitted that although he needed love, he was unable to give it. The father cannot be held solely responsible for these multiple tragedies, but neither can he be totally absolved, nor can the society that supported conditions of lonely individualism and hierarchical obedience.
The relational view is needed. This is hard for some American thinkers to accept because the Western tradition puts such great emphasis on individualism.
When I care, my motive energy begins to flow toward the needs and wants of the cared-for. This does not mean that I will always approve of what the other wants, nor does it mean that I will never try to lead him or her to a better set of values, but I must take into account the feelings and desires that are actually there and respond as positively as my values and capacities allow.
Another reason that the relational view is difficult for some educators to accept is that people in almost all cultures have been taught to believe that “teacher knows best.” But the world is now so enormously complex that we cannot reasonably describe one model of an educated person. What we treasure as educated persons may be very different from the knowledge loved or needed by other educated persons.
The present insistence on more and more testing—even for young children—is largely a product of separation and lack of trust. If no adult has time to spend with a child—shared time that yields dependable and supportive evaluation—then society looks for an easy and efficient way to evaluate: test, test, and test year after year. Then fear and competition take the place of eager anticipation and shared delight in learning.
The caring teacher strives first to establish and maintain caring relations, and these relations exhibit an integrity that provides a foundation for everything teacher and student do together.